CODESYS AI Practice — Import/Export Files

In CODESYS v3, code lives inside the project — a binary file. AI cannot open or edit it.

In the AI era we need a way for AI to operate on the files inside the project.

Goal

Close the loop: project ⇄ text ⇄ AI.

Export POUs to text, let the AI edit them, import them back into the project.

Constraints

• CODESYS must stay the source of truth for the project structure
• Import must not corrupt an existing project
• Prefer a small, scriptable tool over a heavy IDE plugin

Approach

1. Export selected POUs (declaration + implementation) to plain text files
2. Edit the text (AI or human)
3. Import: backup, compare, write back, save

Creating or deleting POUs is not supported in this pass — only updating existing ones.

Import pipeline

Import does four things before touching the live project:

1. Backup — snapshot first
2. Compare — diff bodies
3. Write back — set POU code
4. Save — persist the project

Notes

• Update only: creating or deleting POUs is not supported in this version
• Declarations and implementations are paired per POU
• After import, rebuild in CODESYS to verify

Repository and tooling details follow the same codesys-sync / codesys-connect series used elsewhere on this blog.